Magnetic Fusion Technology

Revised throughout in response to advances in the field since its first edition, this text describes the technologies needed to generate power in nuclear fusion plants using strong magnetic fields, from the magnets themselves to cryogenic and safety systems.

Thomas J. Dolan's work has been in plasma confinement by magnetic fields, plasma diagnostics, and fusion power plant design studies. He developed three courses at the University of Missouri-Rolla on fusion research principles, fusion experiments, and fusion technology, which became the first edition of this book. Since then he has worked at national laboratories, universities, and in industry (Phillips Petroleum Company) on fusion research and other nuclear topics. As Head of the Physics Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) he helped facilitate international cooperation in fusion research, including organization of the semi-annual IAEA Fusion Energy Conferences. Since then he has taught courses on fusion research at the University of Illinois, in China, and in India.

Ralph W. Moir received his B.S. in Engineering Physics in 1962 from the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He obtained his Sc.D. in Nuclear Engineering in 1967 from MIT, Cambridge, Mass., USA. Between 1968 and 2000 he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a plasma physicist and nuclear engineer on fusion and fission reactors. Since his retirement in 2000 he has researched magnetic and inertial fusion energy power plant technology and molten fission power plants on thorium cycles. He is a registered professional nuclear engineer in the state of California, and a fellow of the American Physical Society and American Nuclear Society.

Wallace Manheimer received his undergraduate and graduate education at MIT. He has worked at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory since 1970 and has worked on many areas of plasma science, relativistic electron beams, microwave sources, and radar systems. Since 1999 he has been very active in working on, and promoting the concept of, hybrid fusion, and especially fission suppressed hybrid fusion, as he sees this as fitting well into existing nuclear infrastructure.

Lee C. Cadwallader works on the safety of high technology energy systems. He specializes in component failure data collectionalysis, operating experience data, accident-initiating event data and system failure event information support for public and worker safety. He is a safety/risk researcher, safety inspector, and incident investigator.

Martin J. Neumann is Acting Director of the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions and, since 2009, has been Adjunct Professor at the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the same university in 2007. He is a member of AVS, SPIE, IEEE and MRS.